Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Economics
Journal Title
Journal of Public Economics
Pub Date
2-2010
Publisher
Elsevier
Volume
94
Issue
1-2
First Page
114
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This paper estimates the rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program, an early intervention program targeted toward disadvantaged African-American youth. Estimates of the rate of return to the Perry program are widely cited to support the claim of substantial economic benefits from preschool education programs. Previous studies of the rate of return to this program ignore the compromises that occurred in the randomization protocol. They do not report standard errors. The rates of return estimated in this paper account for these factors. We conduct an extensive analysis of sensitivity to alternative plausible assumptions. Estimated annual social rates of return generally fall between 7 and 10%, with most estimates substantially lower than those previously reported in the literature. However, returns are generally statistically significantly different from zero for both males and females and are above the historical return on equity. Estimated benefit-to-cost ratios support this conclusion.
Recommended Citation
Heckman, James J.; Moon, Seong Hyeok; Pinto, Rodrigo; Savelyev, Peter A.; and Yavitz, Adam, The rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program (2010). Journal of Public Economics, 94(1-2), 114-128.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.11.001
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.11.001
Publisher Statement
This version is the accepted manuscript version of the article.
